The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

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Intel, alongside the entire chip industry it dominates, is going through a revolution led by newly appointed CEO Brian Krzanich.

For industry analyst Nathan Brookwood, at research firm Insight 64, the world's largest chipmaker's latest move to open its factories to arch-rivals (Qualcomm, Nvidia, Broadcom) would significantly reshuffle the technology landscape.

An unintended consequence - or not - would be to free American technology companies from its dependence on Asian manufacturers - in Taiwan, Korea and China - who are now building the brains of all the most popular and advanced mobile devices. It will then accelerate the current wave to bring the entire manufacturing supply-chain back to U.S. shores.

A dream that companies like Apple and Google/Motorola are slowly turning into reality, through robotics and automated factories.

Below is an edited excerpt of my conversation with Brookwood at this week's ARM Tech Conference in Santa Clara, Calif. on how Intel's 180-degree turn decision to drop the “we won’t make things that compete with us” clause will disrupt the world of technology.

Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64

FORBES: What's your take on Intel's decision to build ARM chips in its leading-edge factories?

BROOKWOOD: In the past, Intel has said they did not want to manufacture chips that had competing processor cores in them (like ARM, SPARC, IBM Power, MIPS...). However, it really came down to Intel saying, "we don’t want to make chips for competitors that could be used in lieu of Intel chips." For example, a Qualcomm Snapdragon that competed with an Intel BayTrail SOC - they wouldn’t make that.

But Intel has changed its posture into making chips that might compete with its own. Intel now says that if somebody with whom they compete, who make, say, an ARM-based SOC, and wants to use Intel manufacturing technology, and is willing to pay a fair dollars for it, they'll make it.

TSMC could charge a good price for the latest tech and they charge commodity prices for processes that are 3-4 years old.

So if you are somebody who wants to make a chip, even if it competes with an Intel Atom chip or an Intel Haswell chip, using an ARM core or a MIPS core or somebody else's core, Intel now says that it is willing to negotiate and work with you on that.

That’s an interesting change that Brian Krzanich has implemented since he became CEO. And I think it’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out over the next couple years.

FORBES: This would appear to be a baffling 180-degree turn. Is their X86 chip business in such a bad shape for Intel to decide to build the chips of its fiercest competitors?

BROOKWOOD: It is huge. And I think what it says is that Intel understands that it has several strengths as a company. One of its strengths is to build really neat X86 microprocessors, another huge strength is its manufacturing prowess. And in the past, they’ve tied those 2 together.

But the fact is that you could make a pretty good penny if you manufacture wafers, especially using leading-edge processes because there are companies that would pay dearly to get that technology. And so, as a way for Intel to augment its business, by dropping that “we won’t make things that compete with us” clause, they are potentially expanding the market they serve.

And you have to be putting your head in the sand to not recognize that the X86 market doesn’t have the same kind of growth potential that it had 5-6 years ago. That tablets and smartphones have now coming on the scene.

Intel is not a big player there, they still like to be a big player there, but meanwhile they can participate in that market segment and make good money by leveraging their manufacturing prowess. I think it’s a clever move on their part and it will be interesting to see if they could persuade companies with whom they compete to work with them, in a manufacturing relationship and that’s not a slam dunk.

Will companies like Qualcomm, Broadcom, Nvidia who have fought head-to-head with Intel be willing to enter into arrangements where Intel is their manufacturing partner? That remains to be seen.

It certainly is a new element in the industry. We often talked about coopetition, companies cooperate and they compete, and I think that would be an excellent example of that kind of arrangement coming into fruition.